Parent upset at school handling of alleged battery

[The Straight Story]

Parent upset at school handling of alleged battery


A 14-year-old boy has been arrested on misdemeanor sexual battery charges stemming from an incident at Curran Middle School months ago, and the alleged victim's parents say they're furious campus officials didn't tell them of the incident.

The mother of the 13-year-old girl involved filed a complaint against the Bakersfield City School District and school staff Thursday. District officials said they are investigating.

According to the girl, the boy pinned her against a wall, pulled up her shirt, exposed her breast and touched her sexually. She told her mother she reported the incident to administrators right after it happened.

This allegedly took place in October.

The girl's mother said she first heard of the alleged incident Tuesday, after confronting her daughter about her change in behavior. Her daughter said administrators told her to keep the incident a secret when she first reported it.

"I was trying to get her to open up to me. I felt she was hiding something," the mother said.

...

Gabbitas said school officials decide whether to inform parents about student issues on a case-by-case basis, "based on the information available to them at the time."

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/TheGrade/54330

[Brickbat]

1. If they did tell the student not to tell her mother,

their heads should roll. Jeez.

[virgogal]

2. Why didn't the girl tell her mother right away?

[The Straight Story]

3. One possible reason:

She knew her mom would make a larger deal out of it and she just wanted to go away (getting your parents involved in school incidents at that age can have adverse affects socially for some kids).

[mzteris]

4. Her daughter said

administrators told her to keep the incident a secret when she first reported it.

[virgogal]

10. The admins should be ashamed of themselves. The parent has every right

to be notified of this situation.

[Posteritatis]

6. Blaming the victim is always easy. (nt)

[virgogal]

7. I asked a simple question and you consider that blaming the victim?

Strange,very strange.

[MichiganVote]

5. Well ya' know for the girls sake I hope this is not true, but just b/c a kid

says a thing happened this way and its printed in the paper that way, does not mean the whole thing is completely true either.

[Fleshdancer]

8. I would make it my life's mission to get everyone involved fired

Holy crap! The daughter was told to keep the incident a secret? WTF? If you think THAT is the way to handle this situation, then you have NO business working with kids.

So now the obvious question: How many other students have been sexually assaulted at this school?

[MichiganVote]

9. That is what the girl says she was told, you've made up your mind on one article?

How do you know this is even accurate? If somebody says about you that you were negligent and its posted in a news article, would you believe that too?

[Pithlet]

11. You know? Why even read newspaper articles then? Why discuss them?

I get so tired of people who attack those who've formed an opinion of an article with that. Yes. There's always the chance that facts in an article aren't as they are presented. I think that most people form an opinion with that in mind. It would get pretty tiresome, not to mention the incidences of carpel tunnel syndrome would rise substantially, if everyone always had to constantly preface every opinion with "If the facts of this article are as they say, then I feel..."

[MichiganVote]

16. Perhaps. Perhaps the articles stated items are true. Does that preclude the possibility

that all facts are in? There is nothing to indicate this story is over in so far as
facts are concerned. So why make the judegement that because the girl says this, all bets are off?

You did not just form an opinion of an article, you formed an opinion of a school districts and its employees on the basis of a news article. Why not reserve judgement? Is it really that hard to do?

I guess for you it is.

[tonysam]

18. This one has my bullshit detector on big time.

Some ambulance chaser will get involved, and the parent will make easy money in some bogus "negligence" suit.

At least this paper didn't name names of the school officials, unlike some other papers I can think of which libel teachers by printing their names.

[Pithlet]

26. It's not about forming solid, unchangeable opinions. It's about discussing the frigging article.

You act as if people are making written in stone opinions that they're somehow going to act upon and it's worth getting worked up into a lather over. What is the point of going into a discussion board and wagging your finger at people who've merely opined based on some given facts in an article? It's pretty presumptuous to think that those very people you're flailing at aren't capable of changing their minds if different facts present themselves at a later date, don't you think? I guess for you it is.

[tonysam]

19. It's because people think that since some parent has made an allegation,

it must be true. Fire all the teachers. Fire all the administrators. Cryin' out loud, not every story you read is true.

[TorchTheWitch]

21. he was transferred to another school after the incident

Why? After investigating, police had reason to arrest him which they did at his new school.

[Pithlet]

28. The police could be lying.

:crazy:

[Pithlet]

27. edit double reply

[Pithlet]

29. No. It's about discussing a frigging article.

No one could ever discuss anything if they had to wait until all the facts came out, because it almost never happens, see? Articles are printed. And then that's pretty much it. Sometimes there are retractions, but you almost never see them posted on DU. No, what happens is, someone sees an interesting article, they post a link, and people discuss. They aren't forming hard, set in stone opinions that they're going to enact legislation on. We're all reasonably intelligent adults here who understand how journalism works. We don't need people to explain to us that all the facts ma not be in, or that someone may not be telling the whole truth. We realize that.

[Fleshdancer]

25. I'm telling you how I would react if this happened to my daughter

there wouldn't be any discussion about news articles here if all we ever said was "I'll wait and see". So for the sake of having the conversation, I'm going to talk about it as if the facts were correctly reported.

[MadHound]

12. I would like to see more information on this one

A huge disparity in stories on this, and I doubt that the school would let something like this slide, if for no other reason that fear of a lawsuit.

[The Straight Story]

13. See the comments for other issues. My X mom-in-law worked for the school board out there

Some of those schools are seriously messed up and admins want to protect their image/jobs.

Sweep it under the rug and put on a good face to make your district look nice and safe, you get more money and better job prospects that way.

Rosedale and some surrounding districts have what I call the 'southern california syndrome' they care more about appearance than substance.

[TorchTheWitch]

14. He was transferred to another school where he was arrested

The 14-year-old was arrested Wednesday after an investigation following the parent's complaint, said Kern County Sheriff's Department spokesman Michael Whorf. The boy was arrested at Stiern Middle School where he is now enrolled. He was taken to juvenile hall on suspicion of sexual battery, which involves touching a person intimately against his or her will, Whorf said.
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x113241457/Parent-upset-at-school-handling-of-alleged-battery

The school said that "appropriate action was taken at the time" which looks like the thug was just tranferred to a different school, and the girl's partents and police were never notified.

[tonysam]

17. I have doubts about this story, too.

You never get the whole story in these kinds of reports.

[Onceuponalife]

15. They should all be fired.

That's horrendous.

[tonysam]

20. You don't know it's true.

You are saying something based on a report which is reporting a parent's claims.

[The Straight Story]

22. from the article:

BCSD spokesman Steve Gabbitas did say: "In October, the matter was reported to Curran administrators and appropriate action was taken at the time. It's our understanding that the parent contacted the police. We have no idea what the parent told police. We only know what was reported to us in October."

Even IF the allegations were false, why didn't the school call the parent right then and there?

[TorchTheWitch]

23. and why was he transferred to another school?

seems like that's the "appropriate action" the school took.

[Onceuponalife]

24. Sounds like the Catholic Church solution to the pedophile priests problem

Don't punish them and hold them accountable, just transfer them somewhere else where they will be someone else's problem.

[Pithlet]

30. But the school isn't denying it!

What is it exactly that you have doubts about?